Cancer fighter to join the survivor lap at Relay for Life
July 8, 2009
By Laura Geggel
Dave Sharpy will flash his pearly whites at the 2009 Relay For Life of Snoqualmie Valley this weekend, even if all of the teeth aren’t his.
Like many who attend the event, Sharpy is an experienced cancer fighter. But his story is anything but normal, nor is the manner in which he first learned he had cancer.
The North Bend resident was working as a paramedic in a fire department in Michigan years ago when he contracted hepatitis C from one of his patients. It wasn’t until 2001 that doctors diagnosed him with the virus, which scars the liver and can lead to liver failure.
“By that time, my liver was pretty ravaged,” Sharpy said.
Doctors immediately started him on a rigorous treatment. During that time, Sharpy started having dental problems, and because he was taking immunosuppressant drugs for his liver, his mouth was slow to heal. Two teeth fell out, and doctors thought he had contracted a bacterial bone degeneration disease.
“Well, they were wrong,” Sharpy said.
After visiting several physicians, Sharpy learned he had squamous cell carcinoma in his upper left jaw. Before removing the cancer, an oral prosthetics doctor took molds of Sharpy’s mouth for later reconstruction. Finally, in July 2003, surgeons removed Sharpy’s front tooth to his back molar and the area up to his eye. The surgery was face-changing, but Sharpy was happy to be alive.
“I had worked in healthcare all of my life,” Sharpy said. “I’m a firm believer in whatever it takes, get on with it. You take care of the business and worry about the rest later.”
By that fall, he finished his radiation treatments. He almost lost his job as a medical equipment salesman because he had run out of disability and medical leave, but that November, Sharpy was back in the office. His recovery was tough. The radiation had burned the inside of his mouth and he remained on a liquid diet for many months.
“I golfed a lot during the day at Cascade (Golf Course) and walked nine holes,” Sharpy said. “I tried to stay active.”
After five years back on the job, “I had hit a wall. My wife knew I was going through too much,” Sharpy said.
He left the company in 2008 and started selling cruise vacations and working part-time at the North Bend Nike facility. Sharpy felt more relaxed with his new jobs. After another minor surgery on his mouth in 2009, he thought he was done with operating rooms.
But it was not to be. Doctors noticed a discoloration in his lower right gums and, after a biopsy, found he had another cancerous patch.
This time, Sharpy went on a cruise with his family — which includes wife Virginia and daughter Michele, a 1997 Mount Si High School graduate — and ate as many delicious foods as possible, before having his 10.5-hour surgery in May.
He is still on a liquid diet — for dinner the week before the Relay for Life, Virginia cooked chicken with mushrooms and put it in the blender for her husband.
In spite of his many surgeries, Sharpy is thankful for what he has. For starters, his liver recovered from hepatitis C and he never needed a transplant. Also, his wife and daughter have proved invaluable in their support.
The Sharpys will be at Snoqualmie Valley Relay for Life, held at Centennial Fields, 39903 SE Park St., Snoqualmie July 11. To learn more or donate, visit www.snovalleyrelay.org.
“I am very proud to see him on the survivor lap,” Virginia said, encouraging others to join her husband and donate funds supporting the American Cancer Society.
Reach reporter Laura Geggel at 392-6434 .221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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